In case you don't know by now, I've become a big fan of DC Comics. My first love is and always will be Star Wars, with Star Trek (*ducks the vegetables*) close behind. But in the world of comics, it's become very one-sided. In the battle of DC versus Marvel, DC has the upper hand... for now.

Anyway, I'm going to update this particular blog every so often with the massive DC event known as Infinite Crisis on the way, just because I know you're all so very interested! Plus, it's not like you'd really enjoy reviews of Hop and Pop! *points up*

In any case, let's see how this shapes out...

INFINITE CRISIS--coming in 4 months!

So far...

* The events of last year's Identity Crisis series have had some lasting impact on the DC Universe. Here's a brief synopsis of those events:

The reason for Batman's increasing paranoia, and for the reappearance of villains long thought gone, has been explained. The Justice League, years ago during the "Satellite Era" (when the members included Batman, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Green Arrow (Oliver Queen), Hawkman, the Flash (Barry Allen), Black Canary, Zatanna, and Elongated Man), used Zatanna's magic to "mindwipe" Doctor Light after his assault on Sue Dibny, wife of Elongated Man. Six of the members of the league were present for this event: Hal Jordan, Oliver Queen, Barry Allen, Hawkman, Zatanna and Black Canary. The six resolve (in a disputed vote) that, due to Light's threats to continue to attack the League through their family, they should not only erase his memory of the League's membership but that they also take away that function of his mind which made him so sick and twisted (a magical lobotomy, in otherwords). Batman arrives at the satellite while this is occuring, and orders them stop. Zatanna freezes the Dark Knight in place while the six members of the League (referred to in the future as the Power Pact) unnanimously vote to erase Batman's memories of the last ten minutes (Sue's rape, Light's mindwipe) to keep him from stopping them.

Years later, Sue is attacked once again, and is killed this time. Doctor Light has (somehow) regained his memories and abilities, and puts a "hit" on the Power Pact, which he arranges through Calculator (who works as an information broker now for villains, much like Barbara Gordon does as the Oracle for Batman and the JLA) and Deathstroke. Two other attacks occur following the Power Pact's encounter with Doctor Light--Jean Loring, the ex-wife of Dr. Ray Palmer (the JLA member known as the Atom), is nearly strangled to death, and Jack Drake (father of the third Boy Wonder Robin, Tim Drake) is killed by Captain Boomerang, who is killed by Jack Drake in the process. Batman deduces that something is amiss (why would Doctor Light, who's never really been a threat and has often lost to the Teen Titans, be the first suspect of these former Justice League members? And how would he know who Robin's father was?) and begins his own investigation. What he and the other DC superheroes discover is that these attacks were not committed by Doctor Light, but were actually committed by Jean Loring in an attempt to reconcile with the Atom. She is committed to Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, and the Atom disappears.

So, how do these events lead us into the Infinite Crisis? Let's take a look!

* Batman's paranoia once he learns of what the Power Pact did to him leads to the creation of an incredibly powerful and advanced spy satellite, the Brother Mark I, which he uses to follow the movements of every metahuman superhero and every villain on the planet.

* The unthinkable acts performed upon Doctor Light by the Justice League years before lead to the creation of a new Injustice Society formed (yet again) by Lex Luthor. Among the founders of this new group are Luthor, the Calculator, Black Adam (the somewhat malevolent incarnation of the wizard Shazam, whose other host, Captain Marvel, is the opposite force for good), Talia Head (daughter of Batman's deceased nemesis, Ra's al Ghul), Doctor Psycho, and Deathstroke. These six rally the villain community together to a point where they number greater than two hundred strong.

* As I mentioned in my previous blog, the Infinite Crisis is going to focus on the "Big Three" of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Since learning of the Power Pact's actions, the relationship between these three has become more strained, mostly because of the differences in each characters' philosophy.

* Around the galaxy, things are going crazy. The planet Rann, which was home to Adam Strange, a friend of the JLA and a human himself, was moved to the Thanagar system (home of Hawkwoman) by a fanatic whose sacrifice heralded the resurrection of a long-dead god of myth...

* Speaking of gods, the pantheon of Olympus is feuding, with Wonder Woman in the middle. In an unexpected turn, Athena took control of Olympus from her father, Zeus, thanks to her champion Wonder Woman (who, by the way, is blind currently...); meanwhile, Ares the God of War is conspiring with Zeus, Posieden and Hades to wrest control of Olympus from the goddesses. And all the while, Donna Troy, sister of Wonder Woman and thought dead, has been living across the galaxy as one of the Titans of Myth, Troia, Goddess of the Moon. But she's been having visions of her former life.

* Superman has had a rough time of it; first, he finds out that President Pete Ross knows his identity and has made himself into the villain Ruin who has targeted Superman's closest friends and family. Meanwhile, he had been attacked by a despotic anti-hero from the future, Gog, who is bent on destroying Superman because he Superman wasn't able to save his parents when Topeka was destroyed during the Imperiex invasion. And finally, Superman used his Phantom Zone projector to create a utopia for himself in case Earth ever faced destruction as Krypton did. Problem is, it's such a powerful device that he decides never to use it, and somehow erases his memory of the device. Then it is activated anyway, and over a million people are transported there, and he has no idea why. When he finally figures it out, Wonder Woman tries to stop him from going after the people who "vanished" (among them Lois), but he goes anyway. Long story short, he returns the Vanished home, but the trust that the Earth placed in him has diminished...

* Batman has had a crazy couple of months, losing some of his most famous rogues while gaining a new enemy in the process--or could he be an ally? The Red Hood arrives in Gotham as a mysterious adversary to both Batman and Black Mask, who currently is in control of ALL organized crime in Gotham City following the end of the War Games. The Red Hood proves to be a worthy adversary for both men, but Batman is even more surprised when he learns that the Red Hood is actually... well, that would be telling.

* Hal Jordan, the former Green Lantern, is released from the Spirit of Vengeance, the Spectre, and unites the other Green Lanterns (Kyle Rayner, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, and the resurrected Kilowag) to return the entity known as Parallex (the being that had controlled Hal Jordan after the destruction of Coast City and that had destroyed the Green Lantern Corps) to the main power battery on the planet Oa.

All of this, and a whole lot more, leads into the events of Countdown to Infinite Crisis, an 80-page special by writers Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka and Judd Winick, that led to the spin-off of four mini-series that will lead directly into the Infinite Crisis. Those series are The O.M.A.C. Project (Greg Rucka), Day of Vengeance (Bill Willingham), Villains United! (Gail Simone), and The Rann-Thanagar War (Dave Gibbons).

My next Crisis Update will tell a little more about what happened leading up to the events of Countdown to Infinite Crisis, including the fate of the Spectre, Jean Loring, and Ted Kord (aka the Blue Beetle).

~James T. Skywalker